According to the latest
State
of the News Media report from Pew Research Center, U.S.
newsrooms have cut staff by 30 percent since 2000 Ė and
itís hurting journalism. Quality is suffering on both
the local and the regional and national levels. There
isnít enough manpower to properly identify, research and
report on real news stories, so more emphasis is given
to fluff like sports and the weather. The result?

According to a Pew survey of newsreaders, 31 percent had
given up on a news outlet because it no longer provided
the news like it used to. Those who chose to leave
tended to be the heaviest news consumers in higher
education and income brackets.

One of the consequences
of this is that more companies and organizations are
deciding to forgo the traditional media route and are
opting for a direct approach to the public. This
sometimes involves using
sponsored posts as a way to get their
message out.

News organizations face the growing problem
of trying to distinguish between valuable information
that the public needs to know about and agenda-driven
talking points. The risk here is that readers will
confuse sponsored content with real news, leading to an
even greater level of dissatisfaction with the current
state of the news media.